Compelling Conversations – Vietnam

Speaking Exercises for Vietnamese Learners of English

Chapter

6 Delicious
Choices
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”
James Beard

Jason Q. Tran
www.jasonqtran.com

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Getting Started

Photographer │Tung Phan

Name that food!

Directions:
Draw a food item in the box below. Do not show anyone. The purpose of this activity is for
others to ask you yes/no questions in order to find out what that food item is. You can only
respond to the question with “yes” or “no.” Take turns asking yes/no questions until someone
guesses correctly. Remember, your classmate only has 10 questions to guess correctly
what that food item is

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Sharing Experiences

Everybody eats. Food is both a necessity

and a pleasure, and remains a safe and
interesting way to learn more about
people. Interview your partner and share
your eating and drinking experiences.
Jason Q. Tran www.jasonqtran.com

1 Do you consider eating a chore, a duty, or a pleasure? Why?

2 What did you eat yesterday? Was it a typical day?
3 Do you drink juice/tea/coffee in the morning? Regular or decaffeinated?
4 Do you eat at the same time each day? Or do you eat when you have time?
5 Do you prefer salty snacks or sweet snacks? How often do you snack?
6 Where do you usually shop for food? What shopping tips can you share?
7 What drinks do you often have with your evening meal?
8 What kind of meat do you enjoy eating? Beef? Pork? Poultry?
9 Do you have a favorite vegetable? Are you a vegetarian?
10 What is your favorite fruit? Which fruits do you find delicious?
11 Can you name three dishes that you really enjoy or savor?
12 Which regional foods in Vietnam do you like the most? What are they?
13 What are some unique Vietnamese dishes?
14 What dishes, ingredients, or spices do you look for on menus?
15 Which Vietnamese dishes would you recommend to an American? Why?

ON YOUR OWN
Write menu descriptions for your perfect meal. Include
the major ingredients etizers, beverages and desserts.
Indulge yourself. Now describe your delicious choices
to your group.

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Speaking Exercises for Vietnamese Learners of English

Word List
Which words do you already know? Underline them, and circle the words you are
unsure about. Then review your answers with a partner.

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

chef savor decaffeinated fast
/shéph/ /xê.vờ/ /đi.khăf.phờ.nê.địd/ /phas/
culinary feast edible
/kho.lê.ne.rì/ /phís/ /e.đi.bồ/
label label
/lê.bồ/ /lê.bồ/
feast
/phís/
glutton
/glất.thần/
vegetarian
/ve.jầ.the.rì.ần/
*Academic Word List

Expanding Vocabulary
Look at the definitions and example sentences below. Do the definitions match what you
and your partner expected in the Word List? If not, what is different?

chef [noun]: a professional cook; the head cook in a restaurant.

Ex: The chef’s specialty was broiled fish and his tasty seafood stew.

culinary [noun]: having to do with cooking and food; concerning superior preparation
of food.
Ex: Study the culinary arts if you want to become a chef.

decaffeinated [adjective]: containing no caffeine; a drink with the caffeine removed.

Ex: Sue drank decaffeinated coffee because regular coffee made her nervous.

edible [adjective]: something that can be eaten.

Ex: Starving people know that insects are edible during famines.

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fast [adverb]: moving with speed, advancing or progressing rapidly;

[noun]: a period of time without eating;
[verb]; to go without eating.
Ex: Thang’s motorbike can go very fast, but it sometimes goes slow in city traffic.
The word “breakfast” literally means to break the fast.
Some people fast on holidays and some people fast to lose weight.

feast [noun]: a large, excellent meal; an abundant amount of well-prepared food.

Ex: My mother prepared a feast to celebrate my graduation.

gluttony [noun]: an excess of eating or drinking; greedy or excessive indulgence.

Ex: Gluttony is a common problem among overweight Americans.

label [noun]: the notice that identifies contents inside;

[verb]: to describe or classify objects or people
Ex: Do you read food labels before buying food in the supermarket?
We carefully label packages for shipment, and we double-check the labels.

savor [verb]: to really enjoy; to experience satisfaction and pleasure in taste or smell.
Ex: Eat slowly to savor this fabulous dinner that my grandmother prepared.

vegetarian [noun]: one who eats no meat; a no-meat diet.

Ex: As a vegetarian, Sari doesn’t eat meat.

? Asking Questions with New Vocabulary Words

A Select five vocabulary words in this chapter and write a question for each word.
Remember to start your question with a question word (Who, What, Where, When,
Why, How, Is, Are, Do, Did, Does, etc.). You also want to end each question with a
question mark (?). Underline each vocabulary word

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:

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B Take turns asking and answering questions with your partner or group members. Ask
your instructor to give you feedback to check your English grammar.

Paraphrasing Proverbs
Read the following proverbs and discuss them with your partner. Write what you think
they mean in the spaces provided. Circle your favorites. Explain your choices.

Culture Corner: Vietnamese:

Fun with Puns

Puns are word jokes.

Eat slow, chew carefully, full for a long time. Eat fast, hungry
English has many puns. quickly, and stomach pain.
Understanding puns can “Ăn chậm, nhai kỹ, no lâu. Ăn nhanh, chóng đói, lại đau dạ dày.”
be difficult for many Meaning:
English language learners
because words can have
multiple meanings and
When eating a fruit, remember the person that grew the fruit.
some sounds have multi- “Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây.”
ple spellings with different Meaning:
meanings. Understanding
puns requires listeners to
think like a word detec-
Able to eat and sleep is heavenly. Not able to eat and sleep is
tive, but puns can be fun. money thrown away.
Here are three about food: “Ăn được ngủ được là tiên. Ăn ngủ không được là tiền vứt đi.”
Meaning:
• I’m on a seafood diet. I
see food and I eat it.
• A boiled egg in the International:
morning is hard to beat
• A hungry clock will go One must eat to live, not live to eat.—Spanish
back for seconds. Meaning:
Can you find another pun
about fun in English or
Too much is not enough. – American
Vietnamese? Meaning:

Eat, drink, and be merry.—English

Meaning:

The most sincere love is the love of food.—French

Meaning:

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Speaking Exercises for Vietnamese Learners of English

Building Words
Using the Latin Prefix “de-”
The Latin prefix “de” usually means “removal from”, and we can find many academic
and common words that use this prefix. Some adults like to drink “decaf”, or
decaffeinated, coffee that contains no caffeine that has been removed from the popular
drink. Scholars may also “debunk” a theory meaning they removed “bunk” or “junk”
from their field by disproving an idea with evidence.

Prefix Meaning Example

de- removal of, departure from decaf

Complete the chart below by following the example. For the last two rows, add new
base words.

Prefix Base New Word

de- caffeinated decaffeinated
de- bunk
de- cipher
de- form

de- lineate

de- mote

de- nounce

de- press

de- volve

de-

de-

A Select four words from the above chart and create a question for your partner.
Remember to start your question with a question word (Who, What, Where, When,
Why, How, Is, Are, Do, Did, Does, etc.). You also want to end each question with a
question mark (?). Underline each vocabulary word
1.
2.
3.
4.

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B Take turns asking and answering questions with your partner. Ask your instructor to
give you feedback to check your English grammar.

Discussing Quotations

In your small groups, take turns reading these quotations out loud and discuss them. Do
you agree with the quotation? Disagree? Why? Afterwards, pick a favorite quotation by
circling the number and explain your choice. Remember to give a reason or example.

1. “Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.”
—Aesop (ca. 550 B.C.)

2. “The satiated man and the hungry one do not see the same thing when they
look upon a loaf of bread.”
—Rumi (1207–1273), Persian poet and mystic

3. “If it’s beautifully arranged on the plate, you know someone’s fingers have been
all over it.”
—Julia Child (1912–2004), American chef/author

4. “Live. Love. Eat.”

—Wolfgang Puck (1949–), chef

5. “When I drink, I think; and when I think, I drink.”

—Francois Rabelais (1495–1553), satirist

6. “Edible (adj). Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad
to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1916), American writer

7. “The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your
age.”
—Lucille Desiree Ball (1911–1984), American TV star and actress

8. “People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how
to swim.”
—Ann Landers (1918–2002), American advice columnist

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9. “I thought, I called, I planned, I shopped, I schlepped, I cleaned, I chopped, I

soaked, I peeled, I rinsed, I grated, I minced, I simmered, I larded, I mixed, I
fried, I boiled, I baked, I sauteed, I souffleed, I flame broiled, and I sweated. So,
tell me it’s great!”
—Slogan on a novelty kitchen apron in the United States

10. “More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) ambassador, economist

Please write a quotation that you like and tell us why.

A Favorite Quotation:

Why?

The Conversation Continues

www.jasonqtran.com

Let’s continue to explore topics related

Jason Q. Tran

to food and drinks with one or two

classmates. Use complete sentences to
respond

1 What and where is your favorite restaurant?

2 How often do you eat at home/in a restaurant? Why?

3 What is a typical lunch in Vietnam? What is a typical lunch in the U.S.?
4 How often does your family eat the evening meal together? Who cooks?
5 In Vietnamese culture, what foods or drinks are traditionally associated with
holidays? Weddings? Birthdays? Funerals?

6 Have you ever fasted? Why? Were you hungry after skipping two meals?
7 Why do some people read food labels? Do you have any food allergies?

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8 Do you cook? Do you save recipes? Can you share a favorite family recipe?

9 What is something that you eat/drink every day?

10 Can you name some restaurants in this area that serve food from other
countries? What kinds of food do they serve? What’s your favorite?
11 How have people’s eating habits changed over the years?
12 What do you care most about in a restaurant: food, atmosphere, or customer
service?
13 Have you ever had a bad restaurant experience? What happened?
14 Do you think buffets is a good value?

15 What is your favorite Vietnamese/western dessert?

Pronunciation Corner
Now that you have learned the correct pronunciation of some voiced and voiceless con-
sonants, you can further develop this skill by knowing the difference between a voiced
and voiceless consonant. For some words in English, the verb word form ends with a
voiced consonant sound and the noun word form end with a voiceless consonant
sound.
Group work: Nouns and Verbs

Student A: Say a noun or verb from eac h pair of words below.

Student B: Say “noun” or “verb.”

Voice [verbs] vs. Voiceless [nouns]

Nouns Verbs
proof /f/ prove /v/
safe /f/ save /v/
use /s/ use /z/
advice /s/ advise /z/
excuse /s/ excuse /z/
belief /f/ believe /v/
relief /f/ relieve /v/
grief /f/ grieve /v/
device /s/ devise /z/

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Culture Corner
Billy Pham│www.billypham.com

Eating Etiquette
Table manners play an important role in
making a positive impression. Below are a
list of Dos and Don’ts to make you feel com-
fortable when eating with Americans in
public. Add your own Dos and Don’ts to the
list below.

General Dos
Try to have light conversation with everyone at the table.
Do put your napkin in your lap. When you are finished with your dinner, place it
loosely on the table, not on the plate and never on the chair.
Do raise your hand and say, “Excuse me, please!” when you need help in a restaurant.
Do assume each person will pay for their share of the bill when eating in a group
unless someone clearly states they will pay. Likewise, many couples split the bill while
dating. This tradition is called “going Dutch”.

General Don’ts
Don’t eat too fast – take time to enjoy the food.
Don’t talk when your mouth is full of food.
Don’t chew with your mouth open.
Don’t place your elbows on the table and keep your left hand in your lap unless you
are using it.
Don’t make loud eating noises such as slurping (e.g. soup) and burping.
Don’t blow your nose at the dinner table. Excuse yourself to visit the restroom.
Wash your hands before returning to the dining room.
Don’t answer your phone during the meal.
Don’t floss, use a toothpick, and/or apply makeup at the table.
Don’t say that you’re going the restroom. Instead, use "Excuse me" or "I'll be right
back" before leaving the table.

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Classroom Activity: Role Play

A Night Out at a Fancy Restaurant in Los Angeles

A Asking Questions
Eating out can be fun and satisfying, especial-
Billy Pham│www.billypham.com

ly if ordering in English. What are two typical

questions to ask a waiter at a nice restaurant?
1.
2.

What are two questions you might ask a

friend at dinner?
1.
2.

B Accidents Happen!
Everybody wants to have a good time when they go out, but sometimes bad things happen to
good people—even in nice restaurants!

Let’s imagine this situation: Two friends are going to dinner, and they want to talk. At the
restaurant, a new waiter has just started. He’s very nervous. It’s a busy night at a fashion-
able restaurant on Saturday night. Everybody wants to have a good time, but accidents do
happen. Answer the questions and act in your own play. Have fun!

1 What will happen?

2 Who are the friends? What are their names?
3 What do they want to talk about?
4 What’s the restaurant’s name?
5 Where is the restaurant?
6 Why did they choose this restaurant?
7 Who is the new waiter? What is the waiter’s name? What does the
waiter look like? Why is the restaurant so busy?
8 What accidents will happen?
9 What happens next?
10 Can you create a fun skit?

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Search & Share

Choosing a Local Restaurant

Student Name: Date:

Can you recommend a good place

Jason Q. Tran │www.jasonqtran.com

for dinner around here? Find and

share a positive review (Yelp, etc)
for a local restaurant that you like.
Pick a favorite local restaurant, do
some research, and pick the best
review— in English. Use this
worksheet to tell us about the
review.

Remember restaurant reviews should provide examples and details. Tell us about a special
restaurant—in English—and help us find a place to eat delicious food.

Restaurant: Location:

Reviewer: Review:

1 Why did you pick this review?

2 How does the reviewer describe the restaurant? What
kind of food does it serve?
3 When was the review written?
4 What do you know about the reviewer?
5 What does the reviewer say about the restaurant’s atmosphere?
6 How did the reviewer describe the restaurant’s service?
7 What did the reviewer eat?
“One man’s 8 What was the best part of the restaurant review?
meat is another
man’s poison.” 9 Does the reviewer recommend the restaurant?
—Latin proverb 10 How often have you been to the restaurant? What makes this
restaurant special?

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